From the Eyes of The Elsen
by Sora M. IV
Summary: A compilation of the scenarios of a select few Elsen throughout the game.


Hello all, I've been going crazy with "OFF" lately now that I've finally finished the game and I went out on a limb and decided to write about my favorite little guys, The Elsen! I really also want to write one to do with The Player and The Batter to get out my emotions and what not but I'll save that for another time. I hope you like the shortest story I've ever written and please go easy on me it's only my second submission~! Thank you!

The Elsen

There were five of them at the beginning, five particular Elsen who went through the training just as any other Elsen did. When further examined, it's really not all that odd for them to go through training before they are dispersed to different jobs throughout each of the zones. It is no different than what a human being would go through. And these five are of no exception. Only, their training could be done all at once, despite what department they might work for. There were a multitude of rules that they must obey, all of them put into place as a precaution against danger.

"Hhhh…don't ride…the rollercoaster….it's uhm…a hazard to all personnel."

"D-don't…run…it's not very careful…"

"Do not…steal the…s-sugar…it is carefully distributed for all."

"Do not…forget your helmets…hh…in the mines. It can be…uh, very dangerous otherwise."

"Let's see, umm…do not authorize anyone other than personnel into….thhhhe….mines ..or factories."

"Taking extra breaks…or uhh, breaks without permission…is very careless action."

"Excitement is at your own risk…it can be very dangerous..to be excited."

"Do not speak back to the directors…or uhh…talk to The Queen…that is extremely careless…"

"Do not speak to others while you…while you work…hhhh…"

"Do not stray…from your daily duties…"

"Do not flip…any of the switches…."

"Work is the only thing permitted…while on d-duty…"

And so the list that limited their actions went on. And on some occasions, more rules continued to pile up. But that would be only after The Elsen were sent to each of their divisions respectively.

Damien

The Elsen dispersed here worked long and hard in the mines, hacking away at the metallic floor to release the smoke from below. The black, filthy air passed up over his face as he exhaled with a wheeze, standing up straight to catch his breath for a moment. He looked on after a time, ready to move forward before his brief pause was enough to be considered a break, and he walked on down the hall to a progressively darker area of the mine. He never liked heading there; it always made him anxious. As if on cue, the light atop his helmet began to flicker, and he reached up to fiddle with it sheepishly. The Elsen's breathing slowly became labored with the fear that escalated from within and when his bulb went out for at least a minute long, he stood there, his hands dropping from his helmet to shake nervously in front of his face. "…H-hhhhello…?" he called out, however light, raspy and scared he may have sounded; he hoped maybe another Elsen would hear. In that instant, the light on his helmet sparked back to life, but the sight it illuminated before him was a group of spectres, closing in on him. He felt like he nearly jumped out of his skin and he ran back to the entrance of the mine, climbing the stairs to reach the outside of the work site. There, he stopped to catch his breath, nervously loosening his collar, a dark mist, not unlike the smoke, discreetly creeping its way up his neck. Though the ominous black haze slowly dissipated as The Elsen's thoughts shifted to the plastic rain that fell from the white sky, bringing him a sense of ease. He took his black eyes away from above to look down the path he stood in front of, only to find a rather mysterious being with a black hat, wielding a white instrument, approaching him. The mere mystery shrouding the man was enough to increase his anxiety again, but it took his mind off the former problem and he approached the man with caution.

Zone 3, Area 2

This Elsen had perhaps the most rewarding job, or at least that was what other Elsen assumed. Here, in Area 2, The Elsen worked at the sugar factory where all sugar went through treatment before it was given out to The Elsen. The Elsen was under the impression that his job was the best, though, so were his co-workers; by working in the factory, they were often given sugar as payment and were even allowed to consume the good on their breaks. This also meant that they were the first of all The Elsen to receive sugar. He had yet to connect the declining amount of sugar he was receiving with the gradual decrease of his sanity, however. He only worked harder every day, thinking that only then would the amount of sugar he was given increase. This gave him great work ethic, and yet, the longer it went on like that, the closer he came to losing his mind. He sat at his desk at work one day, fidgeting impatiently in his seat. His eyes shifted up to the green pipes on the ceiling above him, his heavy, grey circles under his eyes becoming ever more visible. "If I just…punctured the pipes….if I could poke just one hole through it…" he continued to stare, feeling desperate the longer time went on. "Hhhh…" he knew it was impossible; the roof was too far up, there was nothing to allow him to reach it without getting caught, and besides, that wouldn't be very careful of him. He slowly breathed in, "Hhhhhh….!" He exhaled, his voice rising slightly in pitch. It was only when he caught someone in his peripherals that he stopped staring at the pipes, and he might have had a panic attack having someone sneak up on him like that, if he wasn't already feeling quite agitated as it was. He looked to the right of him, only for the person to have disappeared. When his eyes flickered around the room, they stopped upon a figure wearing a white striped shirt and white pants, with a white sort of instrument in his hands. The Elsen briefly wondered if he could use said instrument to beat the sugar out of the pipes, but when he realized where the being was going, he no longer plotted how to smuggle sugar. The man seemed to be heading for the storage room, where all the sugar was kept, and that didn't sit well with The Elsen at all. A darkness flooded up and around his face, slowly but surely taking away his line of vision. It would have been painful for him if he wasn't absorbed in the idea of an outsider trying to steal the sugar. _His_…sugar. He didn't care what he had to do, as long as no one else got their hands on it.

Zone 3, Area 3

Deep down at the bottom of a seemingly bottomless pit, and even further down the stairs to an underground furnace, worked a lone Elsen. In all technicality, he was not alone; if he ascended the stairs to the floor above him, there was another worker in this area, but the both of them were too absorbed in their jobs to ever really speak to each other. There was one other worker, but he had left abruptly not that long into the shift and had yet to return… And so The Elsen shoveled in silence. He shoveled and shoveled. Shoveled the bodies of numerous deceased Elsen into the furnace that emitted a furious heat. The work was eternity. The work was disheartening. The work was a secret. And, often times, the work was a necessity for him to obtain the sweet, irresistible crystalized substance that these very bodies were turned into. He and the other Elsen above and the missing Elsen were the only individuals, besides the director most likely, who knew of the origination of sugar. And despite that, their desire for it never wavered. It gave them a rather darkened mentality, a mentality that showed clearly on their faces. This Elsen's circles beneath the eyes were more pronounced than usual, and his teeth were always showing, his lip trembling, as though he were always a step away from succumbing to the horror and depression that reflected so clearly in his dark eyes. His wheezy breathing was always rigid and lower in pitch than usual, and every now and then his teeth would chatter, as though he were cold in spite of the relentless heat that seeped out of the open furnace door. He only stopped when he heard the footsteps of another descending to his level. He had hoped it was his next break time in which he would indulge in sugar, but instead he found a man with a black hat, black shoes and tall black socks, black sleeves seeking questions to the madness that was The Elsens' addiction.

En Route Area 4

The Elsen stumbled along the tracks of the monorail aimlessly, the only real sense of life left to him; the ever growing agony deep down. It was impossible for him to notice the black smoke swarming around him as he walked in the darkness, craving more than anything the sweet taste of sugar. He was only taking two small and gradual steps at a time, like he was in too much pain to continue on at a normal pace, and he even stopped every now and then when the pain became unbearable enough to cause him to shake from head to toe. He hardly even noticed when he was nearly hit by the monorail, nor did he notice the light it emitted, nor the voice that announced the abrupt stop for unidentified reasons. He only became aware of his surroundings when a man in black and white approached him with such a confident air about him, his nose turned up as if he looked down on The Elsen.

"What are you doing out here?" came a low voice from the being, just as full of confidence as the aura around him was. It was in that instant that The Elsen crumbled. He should have been back at the furnace, helping with the disposal of dead Elsen into a greedy flame that would ultimately give him and his co-workers the sugar they needed to get through the day. To know that's where the sugar was from…The Elsen could hardly take it. It was almost maddening to know that he was hooked on the taste of the remains of other Elsen, and yet he needed sugar to live. And he had not had nearly enough as of late. The lack of it had been eating away at him. All of this was just the last added stress to the sugar depravation he had already been suffering from. He slowly brought his eyes to meet that of the man's and he parted his chattering teeth to speak the one final thing he now only knew how to,

"…Hhhh-...Help….." and his vision became distorted as the excruciating pain took over his body. The man swung a white object up casually to hold firmly in both hands, taking a rather offensive stance before The Elsen, three white, glowing rings, floating on either side of the being. He wasn't sure how it had turned out this way… He never wanted to die, he just wanted to live…safely. He wanted to be content like any other Elsen. He had wanted his sugar, and he worked for it in the worst way possible. He hadn't done anything wrong by that…had he? He didn't know. The pain was consuming his thoughts and all he could do was continue to plea for help from the man before him who seemed intent on ridding that cursed world of this particular Elsen's existence.

Zone 2: Purified

It was white. Everything…was white. White…and quiet…and empty. There was no other Elsen left now, save him. He remained in The Residential Area of Zone 2 and he did not bother moving from the room he had locked himself up in. He wasn't sure what had happened, why it had happened, or why he was the only one left, but when it had occurred, the vastness of the now empty land filled him with fear, and so he moved into a small room and there he remained. He had no intention of ever coming out; he liked where he was and he would keep it that way. It was…so quiet. It was almost unnerving to hear the sound of his own breathing over and over again. His breathing, his movements, that was the only sound that he ever heard now. And yet, for the first time in his frightening, fragile life, he felt safe. Truly safe. And that was all he ever really wanted. Being alone in an unoccupied, whited out world was completely ideal if it meant he would never fear for his life again. By himself. Like this. For eternity…he liked that idea. And he had started getting used to such an idea when the locked door made a loud metallic click and swung open with a whine. He looked uneasily to the one standing in the doorway. It was a being he had met once before at some point in time, and the fact that he was still around made The Elsen wonder…was he the one who did this? He exhaled slowly with a wheeze, releasing the tension he had built up when the being had first entered. If he was the reason The Elsen was able to live like this now, then The Elsen guessed he didn't mind sharing the vast emptiness just a little. But as he looked the being over, he realized a difference from before. Black shoes, tall black socks, white pants, white striped shirt, black sleeves and black cap with the white instrument in hand. Only now…the longer The Elsen stared at him…the harder it was for him to tell whether the being was man…or beast.


End file.
